THE ink was scarcely dry on the front-page headlines about the shaming of Rolf Harris before another child abuse scandal pushed them to one side.

Like the appalling revelations about Harris, Jimmy Savile and Stuart Hall the new allegations involve household names at the very heart of national life.

But this time there is a sinister difference and the damage to democracy and the integrity of Parliament could be terminal.

Piece by sordid piece evidence is emerging that leads to two inescapable conclusions. One, that a Savile-like group of paedophiles has been - and possibly still is - operating in Westminster involving MPs, lords and public officials. Two, that there is a cunning, rat-like conspiracy to cover up the truth.

If the political parties are indeed harbouring paedophiles, aided and abetted by civil servants, then the implications are unthinkable.

We've become used to the idea that many politicians are self-serving egomaniacs or sleazy criminals (think election lies and expenses fiddles). But we somehow comforted ourselves that whatever else they were, our lords and masters weren't perverts.

A senior Tory I spoke to yesterday confessed in hushed tones: "I daren't even imagine what the public reaction will be when some of these names come out."

By "these names" he meant politicians listed in a dossier of child abuse allegations which the Home Office has been sitting on for years.

That dossier was compiled in the 1970s by Geoffrey Dickens, the late Tory MP, and handed to Leon (now Lord) Brittan, an unimpressive home secretary under Margaret Thatcher.

Missing files ... shock names to come out

More than 30 years later we discover that Lord Brittan passed the dossier to his officials - though when initially questioned he had a spectacular memory failure about it - and it was then apparently tucked away in a dusty corner of Whitehall.

Now the Home Office admits it has destroyed, lost or cannot find 114 "potentially relevant" files from the dossier. Incompetence? Carelessness? Corruption? You be the jury.

What we know for a fact is that when Mr Dickens told his son he'd handed the dossier to the then Home Secretary he said: "This will blow it apart."

Whether he meant blow apart the Thatcher government or the parliamentary paedophile ring is not clear but either way the dossier was dynamite.

The suspicion lurks that the documents were lost or destroyed to protect a sexoffending minister in Thatcher's Cabinet and rumours abound of MI5 involvement.

As Lord Tebbit told the BBC yesterday, most people at that time would have felt it was more important to protect the establishment than to delve too far into murky waters. "That view was wrong," he said.

More than 10 and as many as 20 current and former politicians are said to be on a list of paedophiles held by the police, along with evidence that allegedly implicates four Home Office officials.

Clearly perverts are not just old men in dirty raincoats who hang around school playgrounds: their disgusting numbers include some of the highest in the land.

Campaigning Labour MP Simon Danzcuk says bitterly: "If there is one issue that is guaranteed to make some politicians lost for words, turn the other way or feign complete indifference it is child abuse. The message from political parties is, 'Move along, nothing to see here'. The silence is deafening.

"Cyril Smith's abuse of boys was known for years but his party the Lib Dems cheered him to his grave.

Similarly stories of child abuse were frequently told about Thatcher aide Sir Peter Morrison. It was only after he died that fellow Tories including Edwina Currie outed him as a paedophile.

"When police as part of a probe into child sex abuse allegations recently raided the office of Labour peer Greville Janner the word went around Parliament that this must not be discussed."

It must be said that Lord Janner denies any wrongdoing and has not even been arrested.

Home Secretary Theresa May will face pressure in the Commons today to explain how her department lost so many vital documents and on Wednesday at PMQs David Cameron could face further embarrassment.

There are a whole host of former home secretaries who should be telling us what if anything they knew about the child sex allegations because this is an issue which is not going to go away however much some people in power would like it to.

The case of the missing dossier has already been reviewed by the Home Office. So far the PM has promised a review of the review but that will satisfy no one.

There are major inquiries at the BBC and in the NHS into how Savile was allowed such licence to offend in TV dressing rooms and hospital wards.

The public deserves something equally searching into the disgusting behaviour and appalling cover-ups which have seemingly infected Parliament over five decades. Almost 140 MPs have called for a public inquiry.

When the Prime Minister's former spin doctor Andy Coulson was jailed last week Cameron was quick to declare that "no one is above the law". That is a principle he must apply to the child abuse scandal too.

And he should reflect on this: while nearly 200 detectives have been investigating alleged wrongdoings by journalists whose job it is to publish the truth, there are just seven detectives working on the Parliamentary paedophile investigation that someone, somewhere wants to be covered up.

Which of these inquiries is best serving the public interest, Prime Minister?